5.13+ Roof Crack Gets Second Ascent

By Dougald MacDonald
, Jul 7, 2006

www.fremontcanyon.com

Canadian Jean-Pierre “Peewee” Ouellet has made the probable second ascent of Fiddler on the Roof (5.13d), a roof crack in Fremont Canyon, Wyoming, nearly 20 years after Steve Petro first climbed the route. After some easy climbing, Fiddler cranks a 12-foot, nearly horizontal roof via a painful finger crack, finishing with a dyno to a flake and then somewhat easier climbing to exit the roof. Ouellet slapped the flake around 15 times before sticking it. He placed the pro in the roof (blue TCUs) during his successful lead.

“The route is really a 12-foot boulder problem,” Ouellet told a forum on the website Dr.Topo.com. “[It involves] ultra body tension and ultra pain in the fingers. The true crux is enduring the pain!

“The worst of it is that I’m an endurance climber, and so this route is totally contrary to my style,” Ouellet added.

Ouellet, who lives in the Montréal area, has been climbing for about 15 years and has ticked numerous hard crack climbs. In June, he redpointed the Colorado testpiece Sphinx Crack (5.13b/c) after around 10 tries in five days; he placed gear during the lead during his successful lead. Ouellet also made the probable second ascent of Sedona, Arizona’s Red Planet (5.13b) last December, and earlier this year he climbed Welcome to Old Kentuck (5.13a) in the Red River Gorge.